An international movie screening will be held by the Student Union Board (SUB), a student organization focusing on planning and promoting events for students and others within the Iowa State community at 7 p.m. Monday.
This major event held by SUB is Cyclone Cinema, a Thursday-through-Sunday free film opportunity for students.
SUB’s Cyclone Cinema showcases a variety of film genres, ranging from horror and comedy to action and drama, screening a different movie every weekend in Carver 101.
Cyclone Cinema is funded in part by the student government and IRHA. Mia Kawamitsu, Director of International Student Experience and member of Student Government, worked with SUB to promote the screening of “Argentina:1985.”
SUB’s mission statement, according to its website, is to provide the Iowa State community with a series of diverse, cultural, recreational, social and educational entertainment programs.
SUB was prompted to include international movies in their selection after “noticing a lack of diversity in the films that Cyclone Cinema has been including in their lineup,” Kawamitsu said. “It is a very tangible project and initiative to complete and so I’ve been very persistent in working with SUB to get this going.”
Cyclone Cinema is seeking to bring in an additional selection of culturally diverse movies in the future.
“I believe that having a more diverse cinematic offering to the student body will not only provide comfort and a sense of familiarity for the international student community, but domestic students would be exposed to different cultures and cinema,” Kawamitsu said.
This initiative began last year with Kawamitsu and the International Student Council. With SUB’s cooperation and willingness to include a diverse perspective in Cyclone Cinema, international movie screenings have the potential to be included in the lineups.
“I firmly believe that it is important to have diversity in cinematic experience,” Kawamitsu said.
The process of suggesting a movie to be added to Cyclone Cinema’s lineup involves several steps and requirements.
Upon asking about the criteria for a potential screening, Piper Carroll, director of multicultural awareness for SUB, explained, “To show a movie on a college campus, you need to have a specific type of screening right and a lot of movies don’t really provide the specific screening rights that we need here at Iowa State.”
Each suggestion undergoes a strict review process that reviews multiple factors. Kawamitsu said there are logistical things that take place when choosing a movie for Cyclone Cinema.
“A movie must have non-theatrical rights, and then it has to be coming from a large distributor so that it’s easy to obtain. And just the cost of it, in general,” Kawamitsu said.
Argentina:1985 is a movie with a 96% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 7.6/10 IMDB score. This movie has been nominated for an Oscar, a Critic’s Choice award and a Golden Globe award, amongst many others.
“I would hope that it would bring like a small piece of individual people’s culture to campus and hope that it shows that we are committed through SUB and through all our events that we want to promote diversity and inclusion at Iowa State,” Bryan Stewart, SUB Director of Multicultural Awareness said, in regards to the impact the screening will have on the students.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Argentina: 1985 is a feature inspired by the true story of Julio Strassera, Luis Moreno Ocampo and their young legal team of unlikely heroes in their David-vs-Goliath battle in which, under constant threat, they dared to prosecute Argentina’s bloodiest military dictatorship against all odds and in a race against time to bring justice to the victims of the junta.”
